PresenceFate

The Presence of Fate
Fate, the idea that there is a planned destiny, began as physical characters in Greek mythology. The Fates, as the Greeks called them, were often portrayed as three elderly women who looked like our common view of witches, with their long gnarly hair and rough faces. The Fates had control over people’s lives; they knew the destiny of all mortals and could literally “cut the string” of a being to end their life in certain versions of the tale. __In today’s society, the role of fate can still be seen as a presence portrayed in our conversations, modern literature, and in Hollywood__.

One such example of fate being given a role, or having a presence, is displayed in the 2000 movie, //Final Destination//. To attract viewers, the tagline in the trailer for the movies was, “You can’t cheat death” (Final Destination). The marketing team behind the film purposefully advertised this tagline to draw on people’s current beliefs of fate. The movie began with a scene where a young man had a premonition that the plane he had just boarded was going to explode (Final Destination). In a frenzy, he and his friends were escorted off board because he looked as if he were not of sound mind. A few minutes after takeoff the plane exploded. One by one, in the days following the crash, the young man’s friends began to die in freak accidents. The young man finally found a “pattern” to the deaths that were occurring, which coincidentally happened to be in order of the time they should have died on the plane. They began attempting to cheat their own deaths again. The idea that //Final Destination//, and its sequels are based on, clearly shows the existence of a supernatural character that has control over our lives, particularly our deaths. As the tagline states, “You can’t cheat death,” it will find you. The “it” in this film was even given screen time being displayed as a black ghostly figure preceding the deaths that occurred in the scenes.

More examples of the presence of fate as a supernatural being, or a character, can be found in many of Jeannine Hall Gailey’s poems in, //Female Comic Book Superheroes//. One such poem is “Spy Girls,” as it describes the life of female superheroes and the destined events they encounter. The poem begins with, “always get their fiancés killed, in the very first scene” (Gailey 11). From this statement, Gailey is suggesting that these female heroes are destined to be alone; fate has to kill their loved one because it is only then the female can make their rage and loneliness constructive. Another example of fate holding a presence is in, “Wonder Woman Dreams of the Amazon.” This poem reads, “I dream of the land of my birth. They named, me after their patron Goddess. I was to be a warrior for their kind” (Gailey 13). The people of the Amazon knew this woman was a warrior at her birth. Fate had destined her to become this warrior, so the people of the Amazon named her after their goddess. The last verse of the poem begins by saying, “I become everything I was born to be,” which again shows the presence that fate plays in the life of this woman (Gailey 14).

The film //Final Destination// and Gailey’s poems all touch base on many of the same ideas that are presented in our society. People often attribute death to being at the hands of fate, even having a higher purpose or cause. “You can’t cheat death,” when it is your turn to die, or there is a purpose for your death as in the case of the fiancés in poem “Spy Girls.” Other common ideas include, when a person excels at a certain trade, or they fit into an archetype found in our society, people often credit it to the person being “destined” for that position. For example, a young child who knows how to plea their case to get something they desire is often “meant to be a lawyer.” Both of Gailey’s poems mentioned attribute the female’s heroism as being destined, or as a result of fate.

The underlining difference between //Final Destination// and Gailey’s poems is in the way fate is presented. In the film fate is clearly an independent, even visible, character in the plot. People interact with the apparition, covering windows and doors to try to escape their fate’s reach. Gailey’s poems instead present fate as a presence that can only be felt through the actions and events that occur, much more similar to the societal norms today. The female superheros, and other people mentioned in the poems, make no regards to fate as a person or thing they can see or communicate with. In these poems the cause of death, or reason a female is given authority, is instead because of fate, or destiny. It is a presence felt, instead of seen.

Although everyone would not agree, people claim that fate is the reason for many occurrences to explain the unexplainable, or to set their minds at ease. However, it cannot be debatable that our beliefs, and the beliefs of those before us, are passed down from generation to generation. The Fates from Greek mythology have been passed down and transformed into something, at times very similar and other times very different. This can be seen through the ideas represented in //Final Destination// and Gailey’s poetry respectively. Written literature, films, and our daily conversations all attribute fate for the cause of natural events, or at the very least humor the thought of the role fate plays in our daily lives.

Work Cited Final Destination. Dir. James Wong. New Line Cinemas, 2000. Gailey, Jeannine Hall. //Female Comic Book Superheroes//. Columbus: Pudding House Publications, 2005.